Intertwined
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: x-over all seasons. It is chaos. As such, it longs for control...its own form of order: complete control over all life. But it overlooked one thing, like the rest. The unpredictability of human emotions, and some making the impossible possible.
1. Prologue: ex nihilo nihil fit

**Author's Note**

Since I've finished **Pay your Price**, I thought I'd start on this story, since it's been swimming around in my mind for awhile. And while researching for my TOK essay, I found some interesting information...

Anyway, this is my first seasons crossover with Digimon, so hopefully it'll work out. Explainations as per normal are at the end of the chapter (or prologue in this case).

Anyway, read and enjoy, and please tell me what you think. Opinions and critiques are welcome. Flames, won't recognise them because no-one's telling me what they are.

* * *

**Intertwined**

x-over all seasons. It is chaos. As such, it longs for control...its own form of order: complete control over all life. But it overlooked one thing, like the rest. The unpredictability of human emotions, and the fact that there are some who make the impossible possible.

Genres: Adventure, Friendship

Rating: T

* * *

**Prologue – ****ex nihilo nihil fit**

There was never a time when the worlds did not exist, and their shadows, parallel, yet threaded together by the very core of their existence. They were not created from nothing, nor can they simply cease to exist, but that that is not to say that it isn't possible for them to transform into some other form.

And through these...evolutions of sorts, certain elements of life are lost. Not all in existence is transmigrated; through the very struggle for existence and dominance some are eliminated at quite early stages. The balance shifts, and eventually...utter chaos. Resulting in an almost complete annihilation of the universe.

But the basics survive. And from these foundations, a new world order is built. Only for it to collapse and be remade once more.

And through it all, chaos dwells. Like all else, it cannot exist without its antithesis: order. And it cannot thrive while order is the one dominant. And yet, it is the cause of all destruction...and eventually rebirth.

But like all else, chaos has a will of its own. And like all else, it longs for dominance; it lusts for its own order. To it, all other forms of order exist only as chaos. And the only way for it to achieve its aim is complete and utter control over all life; to completely eradicate the concept of free will. A control fabricated from the very vital threads of existence; there will be no past, no present, no future...only the void, from which all life originated.

And all it will take is a simple seed to sprout.

And then...the balance will shift once more.

* * *

**Notes**

The void mentioned is _**not**_ nothingness, but rather empty space; gaps between structures in the universe. That difference is important, because in this story, the void is the origin of all existence. And if chaos achieves its aim in controlling that, then it will essentially have the power to control the rebirth of the new world. Just in case I didn't make that clear.

In this particular story, the universe is a space-time continuum, meaning that the events in Adventure and Adventure 02 happen in Earth and the Digital World before the first destruction. The two worlds are then rebuilt, where the events of the Tamers series happen, followed by the events from Data Squad, before the worlds are destroyed again, and remade, where the events from Frontier occur. The worlds are all linked due to the time continuum, and present time is a few years after the end of season 4.

The ex nihilo nihil fit is a latin phrase, and a term for an old philosophical concept where everything was not simply created from nothing and thus cannot simply cease to exist.

Chaos will be referred to mostly in lower case, because it is more of a concept than a name.

First arc will be the Frontier arc, and I'll be working backwards in time. Just thought I'd clear that up.

I just started off with this so there's some sort of foundation for later on. Pretty philosophical, and a bit religious I think. Just keep in mind that just because I wrote this, doesn't mean I believe it. The weird ideas Theory of Knowledge gives ya...


	2. What should have ended long ago

**Author's Notes**

Not much to say here. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the prologue. Also, **Geekgirl** mentioned something I hadn't actually realised, that in season 5 only the DATS and a few scientists are aware of digimon while at the end of season 3 almost everyone knows. My excuse for that is that most of the knowledge of Digimon was lost between the time that Tamers took place and the time that Data Squad did. History gets rewritten all the time, so just assume that's what happened in this case.

On another note, I was originally going to split this up by day/world, then realised at the slower pace things are moving at the beginning and all the explanations that usually occur in the first few chapters, the chapter lengths would have wound up uneven, as would the flow. As such, I wound up splitting the chapters normally, but when there's a change in Arc, World or Date, I'll mention it after the disclaimer.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the Digimon Season, nor do I own their characters. The teachers are all OC, as are some random students, and the plot is mine.

**Arc 1: Frontier Arc**

**World 3: Frontier Human/Digital World**

**Date: Saturday, December 01, 2012**

Anyway, sorry for that extra long author's note, so enjoy.

* * *

**Intertwined**

x-over all seasons. It is chaos. As such, it longs for control...its own form of order: complete control over all life. But it overlooked one thing, like the rest. The unpredictability of human emotions, and the fact that there are some who make the impossible possible.

Genres: Adventure, Friendship

Rating: T

* * *

**Chapter 1 – What should have ended long ago**

'Kanbara-kun,' the teacher said in a monotone, looking up from taking the attendance as the seventeen year old brunette burst into the classroom. 'You're late.'

'G-go-men,' he gasped out, trying to catch his breath, one hand clutching the required material to his side, the other still gripping the door handle in support.

The class giggled. They were more than used to Takuya's lack of punctuality. As was their form teacher, Yamaguchi-sensei, who after issuing after school detentions eight times in the same week in early April for tardiness and witnessing no improvement as a result, eventually let the matter go.

And this time was no exception. All the old bearded calculus teacher was sigh and direct the teen to an empty seat. Takuya went over to the said seat, which was unfortunately right in front of the teacher's desk, and sat down, grinning back at Orimoto Izumi who smiled at him from the second row.

His brown eyes swept over the classroom and his inhabitants, eventually falling on Minomoto Kouji three seats behind him. He smirked, his own way of greeting the goggle head, although the goggles were now kept safely in his room since he began high school and uniforms had become compulsory.

After their return from the digital world five years ago to the day, the six ex-legendary warriors had found it difficult to stay in touch, as it happened that each attended a separate elementary school, excluding Shibiyama Junpei who was in his first year of high school. It was even harder for the other five to stay in contact with the shy Warrior of Darkness, Kimura Kouichi, because not only did he not own a cell phone, but the apartment complex where he lived was quite a fair distance away from the others, and Kouji, who lived the closest, had to ride through at least six stops to get to his apartment.

But either Fate or one of the three celestial digimon had interfered, four of the remaining five children finding themselves enrolled in the same high school as Junpei only a few months later, with Himi Tomoki, the youngest of the group, joining them three years after. Although it meant slightly more travelling for Izumi who lived on the outskirts, and a lot more travelling for Kouichi who lived in a separate district, the six found it far easier to stay in contact with one another.

Now, Takuya, Izumi and the twins were in the second last year of their secondary studies, with Junpei in his final year, and Tomoki in eighth grade. Kouichi was in a separate form class to the other three in his year level, purely for the reason that they didn't allow siblings in the same class as long as they were split by form. Despite the fact that the twins had different surnames, and the fact that their parents were divorced and they didn't even live together....

But that's all beside the point. Yamaguchi-sensei finished taking the attendance, and all necessary pre-class announcements were made before the bell for first period sounded. That meant Economics for Takuya and Izumi, Physics for Kouji, and Biology for Kouichi.

The first period passed relatively uneventfully, and the three of the four met up for their second class, Information Technology. Kouichi was the only one not present, taking Chemistry instead.

Their teacher, Watanabe-sensei, was already setting up the data projector for a demonstration when the three walked into class and took their seats. The tardy bell rang less than a minute later, and the lesson began. It was quite an interesting topic: Artificial Intelligence. Unfortunately, any teacher's monotone voice tends to suck the fun out of it.

'This branch of computer science aims to create synthetic systems which solve computational problems, reason and/or communicate like animals and humans do,' he explained, bringing up an image of a human brain onto the screen. 'This theoretical and applied subfield requires a very rigorous and integrated expertise in multiple subject areas such as applied mathematics, logic, semiotics, electrical engineering, philosophy of mind neurophysiology, and social intelligence which can be used to advance the field of intelligence research or be applied to other subject areas which require computational understanding and modelling such as in finance or the physical sciences. It all started with the grandfather of computer science and artificial intelligence...'

The teacher droned on about the origins of Artificial Intelligence, occasionally bringing up other images onto the projector, before beginning the basics of developing an algorithm to evolve behaviour from empirical data. Takuya, who had switched off in the first ten minutes of the lesson and was now simply staring blankly at the projection, gave a start when recognizing the code now displayed on the screen.

_But...that's impossible!_ He thought, blinking, before checking the screen again. Only, the code in question was gone.

_Was I seeing things?_ He wondered, staring at his friends, both of whom were focused on the lecture in progress. As he should have been.

He sighed. Why in the world was he taking computers again?

Oh yeah, because he thought it would be a snap after all that time in the Digital World.

That, and the fact that he wouldn't have survived a week in Chemistry, especially with Tanaka-sensei's hardcore lessons. Neither had Junpei, and Kouji had barely been passing the previous year, despite being at a B+ average in all his other subjects. In fact, Kouichi had been the only one able to keep up a decent grade, with Izumi not interested in any subject that classified under Natural Science.

He sighed, eyeing the clock. _How much longer can this period last?

* * *

_

Sixty-five minutes later, the class finally came to an end. Complaining about how double periods just drained it, Takuya set off to his fourth period class with Kouji in tow, waving a goodbye to Izumi who was heading in the other direction.

The two arrived to find Kouichi already in his seat, arms folded and forehead gently resting on them.

'Something wrong Ni-san?' the younger twin questioned, taking a seat beside him, while Takuya sat on his other side.

The elder twin just raised his head high enough to glance at his brother out of the corner of his half-lidded eyes. 'Just tired,' he mumbled. 'And we did just finish that triosulfate prac.'

'Thiosulfate?' he questioned, not recognising the chemical name.

Kouichi's forehead simply flopped back down onto his sleeves, leaving one of their other classmates who actually take Chemistry to answer the question.

'We were studying the reaction between sodium thiosulfate and hydrochloric acid,' a black haired girl, Miyake Konaka, supplied, twisting in her seat to face Kouji. 'The reaction produces sulfer dioxide gas, which is a respiratory irritant, and Kimura-kun seems to be suffering some side-effects from the fumes.'

'What sort of side-effects?' he asked, not even hiding his worry behind his usual smirk.

'An increased photosensitivity to light for one thing.' The black haired girl shrugged. 'He was feeling dizzy as well, but could have also been from lack of sleep. He did say he was tired. Tanaka-sensei said the effects wear off after a few hours.'

Their teacher chose that moment to walk in, and all chatter in the room immediately ceased. Oshiro-sensei may be young, but he just had a way of keeping the class silent. Especially English class.

'Books out,' he commanded, as he walked past the desks on his way to the front of the room. 'Chapter 14, Pride and Prejudice.'

There was a chorus of 'Hai sensei,' as the students extracted the requested novel from their pile of books, excluding Kouichi, who half heartedly lifted his head just enough to stare at the pile in front of him, shielding his eyes from the light.

Oshiro-sensei stopped in front of his desk, barely glancing at him, before directing his attention to the younger twin. 'Minomoto-kun?'

'Hai sensei?'

'Take your brother to the infirmary.'

'Hai.'

Kouji got up, before helping his twin. Kouichi, with his eyes squeezed shut and hands covering them, was practically walking blind, leaving the younger twin to lead him down the hallways to the infirmary.

He frowned, looking over the elder twin. Despite the fact that his eyes were covered, he could still see the dark rings accompanying a sleepless night, and his movements were far more lethargic than normal.

'Why?' he asked suddenly, startling the boy he was leading.

'Hmm?' Kouji winced. Even Kouichi's voice sounded tired.

'Why are you so tired?' he clarified.

The elder twin was silent for a while, prompting the younger to repeat the question.

'I just didn't sleep well last night,' he mumbled finally.

'Bad dream?' he questioned.

'No.' Kouichi didn't elaborate, and was spared further interrogation as the twins had arrived at the infirmary. 'Go on,' he prompted. 'You don't want to miss too much of class. I'll be fine.'

'You sure?' he asked hesitantly, as his brother made to step through the automated doors. He smiled in reply, eyes sparking. 'Of course Kouji.'

His heart eased somewhat upon seeing his twin's smile. He was quite sure his own smile was nothing like that, despite the fact that they shared the same facial features. Kouichi's smile seemed to light up his entire face, brightening his eyes by several shades, and quite difficult to pull off without truly having a reason. Which made him wander what his twin found so amusing, but he shrugged it off, giving his brother a reassuring shoulder squeeze before racing back down the hallway.

Kouichi smiled again, only this time it had a hint of sadness in it, before stepping over the threshold and entering the infirmary.

_No need to make him worry over something that ended a long time ago...

* * *

_

'Well?' Takuya asked in a whisper once Kouji had slipped back into his seat. 'Is he okay?'

'He says he's fine,' Kouji whispered back.

'But you don't believe him, do you?'

He stared. The other simply shrugged. 'It's kinda obvious.'

He faltered slightly. 'I think he's hiding something,' he replied finally.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

In Japan, students go to school full day from Monday to Friday, as well as half a day on Saturday.

The information Watanabe-sensei rattles off during IT is from Wikipedia, because I take actually take Chemistry, not IT. I also don't do history, forgoing my one opportunity for Psychology, so any information regarding those two areas are just form the internet. If anything else comes up, I'll mention it. Unless I forget to.

Any chemistry stuff I mention however are 100% legitimate, because I've covered all that in class. I've also done that thiosulfate prac mentioned, and I actually wound up going through the same thing as Kouichi because of my photosensitivity to light, and although I don't have a history with asthma, I was having trouble breathing despite the room being well ventilated. Same goes for Pride and Prejudice.

As for the subject selections, the reason I put Kouji in physics but not in chemistry is that I don't think he's open minded enough to be able to handle the the higher level in which the class is taught. From experience, physics is more founded, while you have to be quite flexible in chemistry to be able to manipulate information and variables given. One of my friends felt the same way, so she does physics and IT instead of chemistry. Izumi on the other hand is more orientated towards humanities subjects, while Kouichi is a bit of an all rounder (he's doing the same subjects as me so far).


	3. Keep the Past before the Present

**Author's Note**

Altrighty, next chapter is done. Not much to say, so...

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the Digimon Season, nor do I own their characters. The teachers are all OC, as are some random students, and the plot is mine.

**Arc 1: Frontier Arc**

**World 3: Frontier Human/Digital World**

**Date: Saturday, December 01, 2012**

Enjoy everyone.

* * *

**Intertwined**

x-over all seasons. It is chaos. As such, it longs for control...its own form of order: complete control over all life. But it overlooked one thing, like the rest. The unpredictability of human emotions, and the fact that there are some who make the impossible possible.

Genres: Adventure, Friendship

Rating: T

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Keep the Past Before the Present**

He opened his eyes, wincing at the pain that racked his skull, pushing it down and taking in the familiar, dark landscape, stretching on without end like the void it represented. He shivered, almost involuntarily, though he thought he should have been adept at dealing with darkness after his numerous accounts of exposure.

But despite how many times he relived his past, he still to some extent, could not let go of it. Despite that it had already past.

It was, or rather, had been a very small extent though; it had been years since he had imagined himself here. He had thought he was finally over it, finally overcome the negativity that had plagued him and the enduring guilt.

He turned, catching sight of a familiar wrinkled face. As he had before, he stretched his hands towards her.

'Grandma...' was all he was able to say before she turned and vanished into the shadows.

He felt another presence behind him, but didn't turn as he had always previously. Instead, he looked at his hands. He was always a mindless puppet of his past, forced to carry out the actions he had then, never given the chance to change them.

A moment passed, and he had yet to turn. Something was building; he could sense it, but he, at that moment, was more concerned with his past to worry about it.

He had paused; he had known what would happen and he had delayed it. Was it then possible to change it altogether?

Logically speaking, one could not change the past. But they always had a way of defying logic.

He didn't move, though the small, rational part of his mind was telling him to turn, to not risk changing the past and suffering through the consequences. The rest of him, the overwhelming majority, was however, greatly protesting to the action.

Somehow or other, the small little voice at the back of his head one against the overwhelming majority, something that majority was obviously not pleased about, considering the effort it took for him to turn to meet the vision of his father,

'Papa...'

Pain exploded in his head suddenly, his past vanishing as fast as it had descended upon him. Through the haze, he could feel two beings opposing, one silently screaming at the lost, while the other remained the ever strong pillar of support, reminding him not to give in...

* * *

His eyes flew open. Wildly, his eyes darted around the infirmary cubicle he was resting in, taking in the plain white decor before his mind was able to convince his body that there was no danger.

Kouichi sat up, blinking away the insistent shadows from his vision, as he pondered over the deviance from his normal recollections. It was as if the past had been in his hands, to change...but would that have not then started a chain reaction?

Could he have rewritten the present by simply choosing elsewise.

Obviously, he could have.

And now that he was aware of that, it scared him.

* * *

'You know, you worry too much,' Takuya sighed once history, immediately following fourth period English, had finished.

Kouji, his mind almost fully occupied by his brother, suddenly stopped in the middle of the corridor they were advancing through, causing Takuya, who was following behind, to stumble into his back before regaining his bearings.

'Ow,' he mumbled half-heartedly. 'A little warning next time?'

'You don't sound good either,' Kouji said bluntly, turning fully. 'And you're an easier nut to crack than Ni-san, so spill it.'

'Spill what?' Takuya asked, backing up.

'You can start by explaining why you were having a staring contest with the projection in IT.'

'Um...well I...err,' spluttered Takuya, before something hit him. 'Hey, wait a sec. Why weren't you paying attention?'

'Because I was distracted,' Kouji shot back, without thinking. Immediately, he mentally face-palmed his head. No way Takuya was going to let that slip.

'Distracted?' he asked. 'With what?'

The younger twin turned his head. 'Nothing...just thought I saw...something.'

He turned back after feeling the brunette's gaze bore holes into his skull. 'Okay? What gives?'

Takuya didn't answer, instead seizing the other's wrist and dragging him to the infirmary.

'Takuya...' Kouji growled, as he was pulled along the relatively empty hallway.

'Did you get any weird feelings this morning?' he asked, ignoring the bandana-boy's annoyed attitude that normally arose with his over protectiveness, despite Kouichi being the older twin. And despite the bandana was now tied to his butoku training sword.

'Weird feelings? Like?'

'The past. Stuff that have already happened.'

Kouji gave the goggle-headed leader an odd look, despite the goggles were locked safely away. 'Um, yeah...but why does that matter?'

'Tomoki came over this morning, to visit Shinya, and he said the same thing. Plus, I felt that too. And then in IT, I could have sworn that I saw Lucemon's digi-code on the screen.'

By now, they were at the infirmary, so Takuya was mercifully spared Kouji's shocked response in favour of the elder twin, who jumped at the sound the door opening.

'Wha..?' he gasped. 'Kouji? Takuya?'

'Course buddy,' Takuya said, grinning, albeit a bit forcefully due to the gravity of their previous conversation. 'You look like you've seen a ghost,' he quipped as afterthought. Then the smile suddenly slid off his face. 'You haven't, have you?'

'Not really...' he mumbled. 'Just...a memory.'

Kouji opened his mouth, but was cut off by Takuya. 'Which one?'

As Kouichi gave him a confused, and sightly uneasy look, Kouji hissed: 'Why does that matter?' in his ear.

'Doesn't this classify as weird?' Takuya hissed back. 'I've just got a bad feeling.'

'Then shouldn't we call the others as well?'

'No credit.'

A pause. 'You really are a goggle-head, you know that?'

'Of course,' he replied good-naturedly. 'Can't get rid of that about me.' He looked at the younger twin, brown eyes widening slightly.

'All right,' he relented. 'I'll call them.'

He left to do so, leaving Takuya to reiterate the question he had asked.

* * *

'Okay,' Kouji said, once they were all gathered, and stories exchanged. 'So let me get this straight. Somehow, all of us were up at midnight, remembering the part of the past we wanted to change the most, yet Kouichi was the only one affected with the disrupted sleep. Then, we get to school, Takuya catches a glimpse of Lucemon's digi-code, which I think I might have seen as well, then Kouichi gets sick enough to be sent to the sickbay, where he falls asleep and almost winds up changing his past. Correct?'

'Sounds about right,' said Junpei, seated in one of the plastic chairs.

'Not exactly,' Kouichi said softly, hiding his eyes. 'I hesitated, who knows what kind of consequences that would have had.'

'But didn't you say you only hesitated for a couple of minutes at most?' Izumi asked. 'Your father's image was still there after you turned; nothing changed.'

'We can't be sure of that,' he argued.

'Regardless,' Takuya intervened, in serious leader mode as the situation warranted. 'Something's going on.'

They were silent for a moment, trying to process the exchange of ideas, before Tomoki suddenly thought of something.

'Guys, how can we be sure that Kouichi didn't just dream about changing his past. I mean, he was asleep. No offense Kouichi.' He added that last bit hastily, while Kouichi waved off the concern.

'That is a valid point,' he said in his usual quiet voice. 'But I'm afraid that's not the case.' He then reached up to brush his hair aside, revealing a red, sticky spot which had been covered by his bangs, ignoring the shocked expressions he was met with.

'That's where I hit my head when I fell before,' he said, tracing the cut with a forefinger, wiping some of the blood away. Beneath it, they could see the red line, fitted perfectly over the scar remaining from his near death years ago. 'That time, I fell, but I don't remember falling. There's a gap between my running down the stairs and what...happened in the Dark Area.' He paused, taking a deep breath. 'It felt the same again, but I was here the whole time.'

'That's...impossible,' Tomoki said slowly.

'Not quite,' Kouji said, a thought occurring to him. 'Think about it. If Kouichi had waited too long, Duskmon would not have been born. And if he was not, our adventures in the Digital World would have been altered for one, the spirits of darkness would have always been corrupted, and not to mention that Kouichi might not even be alive today!'

'Hold up!' Izumi cried. 'You're saying it was deliberate.'

'That is more than likely,' Takuya reminded her. 'While the whole waking up at midnight could be written off as a coincidence, the rest can't. Something's up.'

'Unfortunately,' Junpei sighed. 'We're no closer to figuring out what. Nor what we're going to do about it. We don't even know how big a threat it is.'

'It's a pretty big threat,' Kouji growled. 'A tiny change in the past could rewrite the whole future. Wars could be started, or stopped. The entire world could be rewritten...or destroyed completely.'

There was silence after those words.

'You know,' Takuya mumbled, slightly irritably. 'Times like this make me wish we still had access to the Digital World.'

'Don't jinx us!' the other five cried.

'Fine, fine. Let's just enjoy our weekend and worry about this when we've got something more to go on with. Not like we can figure anything out.'

'True,' Kouji agreed. 'Who knows, it might just be nothing after all. Except...'

'What?'

'Kouichi!' He yelled suddenly, causing the said boy to jump. 'Get that wound cleaned up!'

'You know,' Kouichi mumbled, going over to the nurse's office on the other side of the room. 'You worry too much.'

'Damn right I do. But only when it comes to you.'

The resulting laughter managed to somewhat ease the tension.

* * *

Below the deepest cavities of the Digital World, something stirred once more. Something seeking...to manipulate, to change...to destroy.

The test had failed. But it had showed it a way to succeed. As incapable of free will as it was, it was compelled to follow the force it was driven by. It was chaos; as such, it longed to control. And the lust for that control drove it, formed it from a shapeless, nameless mass, into something concrete, absolute...chaotic.

Chaos was rising once more.


	4. Fallen Trees

**Author's Note**

Alright, next chapter is done.

BTW, Kouichi is sleeping over at Kouji's house. And the storm mentioned in the first line only struck the side of Shibuya where Kouji, Takuya, Junpei and Tomoki live. So Izumi was out of the way of the storm. And the storm itself was mainly at the park, only the surrounding power lines got cut off so some of the houses, such as Junpei's, lost their power for a time, so the Takuya and the twins were unaware of the storm, and the Himi brothers only found out when they stepped into the park and saw the damage.

And another note, school in Japan goes from April to March, and March is the graduation. Thus, I'm going by the assumption that the exams are early February, as at my school, the final session of exams are early November (or starting late October in some cases) and graduation is early December.

Well, this is ironic. Sunday in this story and Sunday in real time too.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the Digimon Season, nor do I own their characters. The teachers are all OC, as are some random students, and the plot is mine.

**Arc 1: Frontier Arc**

**World 3: Frontier Human/Digital World**

**Date: Sunday, December 02, 2012**

Enjoy everyone.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Fallen Trees**

'_...and this morning's storm seems to have died down for now, though we are yet to discover the extent to the damage caused...'_

Sighing, Junpei flicked off the television, which had just flickered on as the power reconnected, having been on just before it cut off that morning. The storm had been sudden and unexpected, so it was extremely fortunate that it had struck while most were lazing around indoors or sleeping in.

The senior sighed again, before returning to the notes spread around him which he had been revising, till the television had interrupted him. He didn't really want to do it, but during the final year, especially so close to the final exams, and graduation, he couldn't really afford to slack off.

So, almost unwillingly, he returned to his study.

* * *

'Honestly Kouji, I'm not an invalid,' the elder twin complained, though without much vigour in it as he tried to ease himself out of his brother's bed, only to be prevented from doing so by the same brother.

'Stop being stubborn and stay still,' Kouji said in a tone of voice which would have been mistaken for a growl by any other person, though Kouichi understood it to be his brother's demonstration of concern. 'Remember how you fell out of the bed five years ago when you tried to get up?' He quickly continued as the other opened his mouth. 'And don't say you were fine yesterday; you didn't even make it out the infirmary when the impact hit.'

'It wasn't exactly five years,' Kouichi grumbled, but compiled, remembering how he had tried to straighten up the day after his fall at Shibuya Station and found himself on the floor with extremely blurred vision and an even worse headache than what he had started with which took its sweet time in fading away, despite the added help from strong analgesics when the result sent spasms of pain throughout the rest of his body as well.

He would rather prefer that didn't happen again, as did the younger twin, and all those aware of that particular incident and who still retained memory of it.

And he also remembered how he had fallen half-way to the medicine cabinet when the dizziness finally struck, and with it, the

Kouji sighed. 'Just stay in bed,' he ordered, smoothing the covers and fixing the pillows to make the other more comfortable.

The elder smiled slightly at the care his brother showed. 'All right _Ni_-san.'

Kouji rolled his eye, before letting a grin grace his features in return. 'When you're better, you can take back that title. For now, just rest.'

And Kouichi compiled.

* * *

Takuya, at that time, was on his way out somewhere when his mother caught him.

'Takuya, go clean your room.'

He inwardly groaned, having hoped to escape before being caught.

'But 'kaa-san, I-'

'Now, Takuya!'

'Fine 'kaa-san.'

'And no leaving the house till you're done.'

'But that'll take all day!'

'Then maybe you shouldn't let your room get into such a condition.'

He groaned again, this time out loud, before trudging, defeated, upstairs. There went his hopes for an out-day...or half-day, seeing it was just past midday.

* * *

Meanwhile, Izumi was frantically running around, juggling customer orders, as the Italiano Restaurant her father owned, and in which she helped out when needed, was teeming with people looking for an early lunch. There was a birthday party in one area, with a farewell business party in another, and between those two and the smaller orders, even with the amount of staff and his daughter's additional help, Orimoto Masaru was having an extremely hard time in keeping up with all the orders.

And he couldn't help but wonder why this business had suddenly become so busy...and whether it was the work of a devil or a blessing in disguise...or both.

* * *

At the same time, Tomoki was strolling through the storm-wrecked park with his brother, who had come for the weekend from collage to visit. The two were talking about random stuff, merely catching up since they had last seen each other; getting along far better since the younger Himi's journey in the Digital World and the lessons of life he brought back with him.

After seeing the damage the park had sustained, they had almost reconsidered their little stroll, but in the end decided to press on. On the way back, they agreed, they would help with the clean up, as it seemed that it would take at least another half hour, judging by the council gathered and their ongoing assessment, till the media and other formalities were sorted out, as well as comforting the couple towards the edge crying about something and sorting out a few injuries.

The path however, was free from both mud and debris, so they chose to follow it through to the other end. They didn't have another choice as it stood, in any case; the road was blocked off because a tree had fallen across it, and traffic on both sides was steadily accumulating.

The park was usually crowded at this time of the day even in the event of a storm previous; after all, the sun was currently shining above them, so they found it rather surprising that the plain stretch of land was near empty, save the scattered debris and uprooted plants which were soaked with muddy water; at least until they caught sight of a steadily increasing crowd gathered where they knew the Sakura tree to stand.

Curious to know the trouble, the two made their way over as close as they were able, being unable to fully maenuver their way through the crowd. Snippets of conversation caught their ears, making little sense to either of them.

'How cool, the colour's changing...'

'Red, pink, blue, green...'

'But the Sakura...'

'Like a rainbow...'

'...all spoilt and broken...'

Then Yutaka managed to catch a glimpse of the cause of the commotion.

'What the hell!' he exclaimed.

Tomoki attempted to see what his elder brother had, but being a full two heads shorter, he was unable to do so.

'What's the matter Onii-san?' he asked instead, hoping for a more coherent explanation than the snatches of conversation provided.

Then the crowd parted suddenly, and he was able to see for himself.

* * *

The village of beginnings was in chaos. Digimon were frantically gathering up the infants and unhatched eggs, aided by their caretaker, Swanmon. Above them, the clouds churned, dumping rain upon those below, and the winds howled and screeched, as if someone was physically tearing the sky apart.

All in all, that isn't too bad an analogy, though no digimon noted it during the evacuation. The tree of beginnings swayed dangerously in the harsh gale, and the digimon assisting the evacuation of the digiworld's future were hard pressed to stop themselves, their comrades, and the eggs they were attempting to save (all the infants safely on board Worm) from flying off in the unforgiving storm.

It had come upon them without warning, and it was only because Swanmon had been lucky enough to have visitors at the time that the evacuation was taking place at all. Two trailmon had already been dispatched, Worm being one of them, to deliver the infants and eggs on board to somewhere safe, while two others, Mole and Angler, were being quickly filled up.

The third was soon filled, and Angler took off, circling the rail before heading down the one which would lead him to steel town, whose steel structure and underground architecture, which the chosen had unfortunately missed the chance of seeing, making it the most suitable sanctuary against the third storm to rack their world in a matter of days, the first having uprooted the burnt forest (despite the fact that it had eventually grown back after Takuya's rampage), and the second having caused less damage simply due to the location, having knocked off the snow at the uninhabited peak of Mount Infinity and buried a small town a little ways down the mountain in snow and knocking a lone Unimon off the rim before he was able to get himself airborne, and avoided a rather messy death by three inches...not that anyone had measured of course.

Unfortunately for those remaining, the final Trailmon had not been loaded with the remaining eggs when the gales picked up to such a speed that even Swanmon's White Marie combined with AreoVeedramon's Wind Guardian were not enough to deter their path.

And then the sky, quite literally split, throwing Mole along with the eggs it carried off the rails and slamming it into a Floramon and Palmon attempting to gather up the nearest eggs with their vines. The ground split from the force, the two rookies disintegrating into data in the chaos as the eggs scattered, some cracked from landing under the Trailmon while others were blown around in the storm.

Those remaining desperately held onto something, though as most trees and plantation were being uprooted, it was rather difficult to do so, desperately trying to tough out the storm.

Debris and dirt flew, so much so that it was impossible to see anything. And that was probably why nobody noticed the Tree of Beginnings disappear suddenly...

* * *

'The Tree of Beginnings?' Tomoki gasped. 'Well,' he amended, after a moment's thought. 'Not exactly...'

The Sakura tree which had, till then, proudly stood, had bee uprooted and was lying on its base, the trunk halfway split and branches snapped off. The pink leaves were scattered, and mixed amongst them were leaves of a different sort, changing from pink to green to blue to red to yellow and back to pink again, though not necessarily in that order.

The fourteen year old looked down, seeing as the assortment of leaves reached as far back as he now stood, and he bent down and grabbed a multicoloured one, watching it shift colours as it rested in his palm.

'You know what that is?' his elder brother asked.

'Yeah...' he murmured, confused as to what had happened. 'It's a leaf from the Tree of Beginnings in the Digital World. Though how it got here...'

And then he cut himself off as the multicoloured leaves, save the one he held, turned a charcoal black and fell apart to become a part of the soil beneath it.


	5. Unintentional and Intentional Flashbacks

To my knowledge, Izumi's parents were never given names, so I've named her mother Rumiko (after Ruki's mother from Tamers, though the characters are different), and her father Masaru (isn't that Marcus' sub name from Savers/Data Squad?).

And Junpei's studying comes from some old physics notes I dug up from my old school stuff. It's on Newton's Law of Gravity if anyone's interested.

Thirdly, a little medical knowledge. In the event of a head injury like Kouichi's fall, the impact can hit almost immediately, like Kouichi's "medical death", but can also hit up to a year later. What I've done, if you go back and check previous chapters, is that the main impact hit immediately, ie. his heart stopped beating, but the lesser impacts (ie. the headache and stuff) didn't hit at all till a little while later, and the main brunt of that till more than 24 hours later. I got that from work (at a pharmacy). And there is an ulterior motive for me doing that which comes into play in the next few chapters (I think, but if not the next chapter, than the one after). But that "aftershock" is mostly sated by some very strong painkillers (not your common over-the-counter drug)

Lastly, I'm assuming Kouichi still has his D-scanner, as they only show the other five turning back into cell phones in the last episode. Again, for a reason.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the Digimon Season, nor do I own their characters. The teachers are all OC, as are some random students, plus the girl Fujisawa Honami, and the plot is mine.

**Arc 1: Frontier Arc**

**World 3: Frontier Human/Digital World**

**Date: Sunday, December 02, 2012**

Enjoy everyone.

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Unintentional and Intentional Flashbacks**

'I'm sorry, Takuya can't come to the phone now...'

Takuya heard his mother's voice downstairs, but didn't dwell too much on it. Knowing his mother, and considering the statement, he wouldn't be allowed to take a break as a phone call would allow until his bedroom was spotless.

Which, currently, was far off.

He had managed to sort out the clothes, and the floor was in sight, albeit not very clean. He hadn't realised the dust, amongst other things, snacks and stuff, that had accumulated beneath the clothes, books and instruments he simply tossed away after use.

And now that the obstructing obstacles had been cleared away, it was all rather obvious.

Though he should have realised this by now; after all, hadn't he and his mother began such a tradition on the day after his brother's eighth birthday?

He just hoped the call wasn't anything important.

'I'll have Takuya ring you when he's done Himi-kun.'

_Tomoki? But he's already rung once today._

He looked down at the carpet, and sighed before opening the door to retrieve the vacuum cleaner.

_I hope everything's all right...

* * *

_

'Honey? Could you get some eggs from the supermarket?' Rumiko called to her daughter once she arrived home with her father. 'We're out, and I want to bake a cake.'

'Ooh,' the blonde trilled. 'Yummy. I'll go get them right away.'

She slipped out of her father's grasp, and accepted the money her mother held out.

'Don't forget your jacket,' she reminded, as the other slipped the notes into her purse.

'Si Mama,' Izumi answered, grabbing the purple jacket off the hook and slipping it on, disappearing through the front door, again with a wave and farewell to both parents.

As Rumiko closed the door behind her, the phone rang, one times, two, three, before Masaru picked up.

'Moshi moshi, Orimoto Residence...Izumi? I'm afraid you've just missed her...'

* * *

'...any two objects in the universe will attract each other with a force, Fg, proportional to the inverse square of the distance, d, between the centres of mass of the two objects (where the m's are the masses of the two objects, and G is the universal gravitational constant). He derived his law from Kepler's Third Law and the equation covered earlier for angular acceleration...'

He took a deep breath, before sighing, and repeating Newton's Law of Gravity to himself again, trying to drill the information into his head until the exams passed, along with the information already stored.

The phone rang, but he ignored it. His parents weren't home, leaving him with the house to himself to study.

And taking a phone call, especially one that turns to a full hour chat, would be a poor demonstration of hospitality, not to mention the distraction it would cause.

So the phone continued to ring, and he continued to let it ring, hoping it wasn't anything important.

* * *

Tomoki sighed, hanging up the phone for the third time after the call went unanswered. He already knew Kouichi was not home, the twins having mentioned yesterday that he was sleeping at the younger twin's home.

He just hoped at least one of them was home and able to take the call.

He hadn't been able to ring till the last fifteen minutes, as it appeared the power and telephone lines were disabled till previous to that due to the storm. Mobiles were still not working, the wireless transmission messed up because of router cross-links during the storm as informed by a ward-wide broadcast.

''touto-chan,' Yutaka called from the living room. 'Come take a look at this.'

He blinked, before abandoning his post by the phone and going to his brother who was watching the news. The screen was depicting Shibuya Park as they had seen it a few hours ago, although now in a bit better condition with hours of labour and a multitude of hands.

_'It appears as though one member of a Sunday outing that was taking place before the storm struck is still currently unaccounted for,'_ the television blared_. 'Nine year old Fijusawa Honaki was separated from her friends and family during the storm and remains yet to be found...'_

He remembered the multicoloured leaves that had been left behind at the time, leaves where he had only ever seen before in the Digital World.

Was it possible then that a Digital Gate had somewhere opened?

Was it possible that this girl was now lost in it?

He ran back for the phone, hastily dialling the number of the Minamoto residence, hoping that one twin was at least available.

* * *

Kouji happened to be standing by the phone when it rang, carrying a tray, so he picked it up on the first ring before it could disturb his brother's less than restful doze, balancing the said tray on one hip.

'Moshi moshi, Minamoto residence,' he said, a tad quieter than normal, into the receiver.

'Kouji? Is that you?' Tomoki's voice sounded from the line.

'Yeah...Tomoki?'

'Thank goodness _someone_ picked up the phone!' The younger boy sounded extremely exasperated. 'Takuya's grounded until his room's clean, I just missed Izumi, and no-one at Junpei's house is picking up the phone. Where's Kouichi?'

'Sleeping I hope.' A light frown grazed his face at the other's slightly panicked tone. It had to be important if he had tried to reach the entire team. 'His headache from yesterday was getting worse.'

There was a brief silence on the other end, before Kouji continued. 'Is there something wrong?'

'Well actually...' the other's voice trailed off slightly, before beginning far quieter than he had previously spoken. 'Onii-san and I were at the park today, after the storm, and the Sakura tree in the middle was uprooted.'

'Okay?' Kouji sounded confused. Understandably, as he couldn't see what was so important about that.

'That's not the important part,' Tomoki explained. 'The leaves...you know how Sakura blossoms are a light pink?'

'Yeah?' the other was even more confused.

'Well...they were all scattered, and mixed with them were leaves that kept changing colour, like the ones from the Tree of Beginnings. Until they turned black and disintegrated.'

Silence.

'Afterwards on the news,' Tomoki continued. 'They said someone went missing in the same area. A nine year old girl, Fujisawa Honami.'

'You don't think..?'

'...a Digital Gate has opened somewhere? What other possible explanation is there? And don't say I was seeing things.' He added that last bit when he heard a draw of breath from the other line.

'Okay,' Kouji sighed. 'I won't. But still, why after five years? That goggle-head had better not have jinxed us!'

Tomoki chuckled, before his voice took on a more worried tone. 'Kouji...what should we do?'

_What should we do? What can we do?_

'We'll talk to the others at school tomorrow,' he said out loud. 'Six brains should be able to come up with a plan.'

'All right then.' The young boy sighed. 'I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Yeah...see ya.'

He placed the phone back onto the receiver, before taking the tray in both hands and continuing to his brother's room...well, his room really, but as it was his brother (hopefully) sleeping in there as it was, at current it was more the others than his own.

Besides, they shared everything anyway, so it could be called one or the others.

He had left the door not-quite-closed, which made it easier to push fully open with his elbows as both hands were fully occupied, putting the tray down on the desk before moving to the bed.

Kouichi was nestled into the sheets, a position which would be rather comfortable if not for his physical ailments. His headache had intensified since Kouji had been in the room last, and his body was trembling slightly on its own accord, and not entirely of pain. As the younger twin brushed the bangs away from his elder brother's face to see the slightly parted eyelids better, and the blue eyes clouded with pain and something else that peeked out between the lashes.

The elder twin leaned forward slightly into his brother's cool and gentle touch, forcing his eyes open a little more while looking hazily at his brother.

'Maybe you need something stronger than Nurofen,' Kouji murmured, frowning.

The other whispered something he didn't catch, perhaps because the chemical name was foreign, but before he could ask, or chasite his brother for not saving his strength, Kouichi continued.

'Last time..,' he murmured weakly. 'At the hospital...Satomi-san...'

And both twins thanked whatever God for giving them such a connection which allowed the younger to understand the request with those few words.

'I'll call 'kaa-san,' he promised, running his hand through the other's hair in a soothing manner before withdrawing to leave the room again. 'Hopefully she'll be here in five or so minutes.'

Kouichi didn't visibly respond, but the other knew he had heard and understood anyway, leaving to return to the phone to ring his step-mother from work.

* * *

Minamoto Satomi worked at the Shibuya Hospital, in the children's department to be specific. For six years a qualified doctor, she had coincidently been placed in charge of a step-son who she had, till that day five years ago, never seen, although Kousei had informed her of the said boy while explaining the terms and circumstances of the divorce thirteen years prior.

To say it was an awkward first meeting is barely scraping off the tip of the iceberg, but it was far from a worst case scenario. After all, even when taking into account all that had happened in the Digital World and the bitter (and some of which partly unjust) accusations that had flown across the battlefield and the resulting inner turmoils which could never be fully resolved like old scars which always remained and marked the place of pain, and Satomi's own difficulties in fitting into a family of which half didn't want her and the other half tried too hard to make her fit in, there was no shadowed hatred, enmity or envy between the two, as there had been between the two brother or between parent and non-custodial son, which made things that little bit simple. And of course the point worth mentioning that Kouichi had no choice but to listen to her initial instructions considering his position, and a bridge of trust was quick to form between the two as the two families were woven together as any two in continual contact would be.

She wasn't sure what had made her think of it, sorting through some scraped notes during her lunch break. But the thoughts had crept upon her, unbidden and surprisingly halfway through a cream puff she had packed for herself for a quick snack after the day's dramas, including a twelve year old who had broken his leg after a tree had fallen on it and refused to stay off it, as well as other injuries (though that was the most serious) caused by the storm.

But once the nurse at reception brought her a message from Kouji, she supposed it was a rather odd coincidence.

* * *

True to his word, Satomi arrived home in five minutes, as the hospital was quite close to their double-story home, and it had taken only a couple of minutes to arrange for someone to take over the remaining two hours of her shift and to acquire the phial requested.

She immediately checked over the elder twin, who had fallen into an uneasy doze, and found the boys had been correct in that the symptoms were a repeat of the aftershock of Kouichi's fall down the steps of Shibuya station five years prior. How she didn't know, but as the younger twin had promised her an explanation after his brother was tended for, there was little else to be done except tend to the elder of the two.

* * *

Shut outside of his own room, Kouji was face-palming his own forehead. While it was perfectly natural for his step-mother to want an explanation, he was yet to tell her about the Digital World and what had really occurred during the time of Kouichi's "death". In fact, he hadn't told his father either; it wasn't unusual, as Kouichi was the only one who had told a parent, his mother, and that was after a bout of nightmares which had led to Tomoko practically forcing an answer out of her son. Tomoki had told someone as well, but Yutaka hardly counted as a parent, despite his over-protective attitude.

So now he had to figure out how to explain the entire situation, because the recent events made little sense without reference to them.

And the next issue was of course whether or not she would believe him.

* * *

It appeared that Kouji had underestimated his step-mother, as she took the bizarre explanation into stride. The only down-side was that Kousei happened to arrive home from his own day at work and overhear a part of the discussion, which led to a more awkward regurgitation of events, the awkwardness mainly because of the circumstances circling Duskmon.

Though as cliché as it sounded, time seemed to be healing old wounds, as hearing the same events five years ago would have made family acceptance far more difficult, as both sides would have felt the heavy burden of misaimed guilt, but the two enlightenments had taken place five years apart, giving one ample time to settle before the weight dropped onto the other.

Kousei could not hold fault upon his son; he was, after all, partly to blame for the turn of events, and he was the easiest pinnacle for direction of blame. He could however fault the monster who had twisted the situations to his own ends: Lucemon, as Kouji explained, Cherubimon himself was as much a pawn in the Demon Lord's game as Kouichi had been.

* * *

After the discussions, and a very subdued dinner, he sat by himself on the living room couch with a strong cup of tea in his hands. It had taken him far longer than his wife to come to grips with the situation. He, indeed, hadn't believed it at first, but Kouji was the last person he would imagine coming up with such fantasies, and also, as fate would have it, a rather horrible liar. So he eventually concluded that what had been said was the truth, and accepted it.

He twirled the cup gently, watching the liquid inside swirl, catching the kitchen lights where Satomi hummed to herself while cleaning up.

What worried him now was his other son. He remembered when he had first met Kouichi; the boy had seemed almost afraid of him. He had imagined anger or some emotion akin, but the fear had been entirely unexpected, and he had never understood.

Till now.

He could not blame him; the lies had really been believable, and as Tomoko had never explained the terms of their divorce to him, he had nothing to go on except what society projected as common occurrences.

And it was unfortunately rather common for a man to leave their previous wife for a new, younger, one.

Come to think of it, he was fairly sure that neither twin were still aware of the full circumstances of their divorce. And it was ironic, now that he thought about it, how similar the circumstances were. After all, had he not lost his first wife and son because he had trusted a man not worthy of that trust and paid the price?

He laid the cup down. Perhaps the time for closure was upon them. After all, they both deserved to know the real reason for the separation.

* * *

In his brother's bedroom, Kouichi slept, subdued under the phial of medication Satomi had injected into him. While the pain was dimmed by the general anaesthesia, so were his senses, so as he saw chaos and turmoil behind his eyes: trees uprooting, eggs flying in the air, cries of fear, pain and death...he could but understand little, and remember less.

But while his senses were dimmed, his heart was far from such, still beating strong, still trusting to the bonds that bound him to those around him, still believing...

And as it was, in some cases, the heart is independent of other senses.

Because that connection forged five years ago still lingered, and if it hadn't, the black-coated device buried under the blankets would not have revived.

* * *

'Ophanimon,' the only beast-digimon of the three Celestials uttered gravely. 'Is it necessary to involve them again?'

'I'm afraid so,' the female angel replied, just as gravely. 'Our world is not the only one which will soon find itself under siege.'

A third entered, bidding the other two to remain seated in his gravely voice as they rose to greet him.

'What have you foreseen Ophanimon?' he asked, taking his own seat and getting to the point as he usually did.

She frowned. 'There is much unsure I'm afraid,' she sighed. 'But I see chaos, not only here, but in the human world as well. Digimon there, humans here...I'm afraid the turmoil will eventually cause the barrier between our two world to corrode completely.'

'It has already begun,' Cherubimon replied. 'Word arrived from the Village of Beginnings moments ago. Trees uprooted, including the Tree of Beginnings, digimon injured, and many digimon eggs...completely destroyed.'

The other two sat in a grave silence while the report was absorbed.

'This just foreshadows the future,' Ophanimon said finally. 'Our world will not be the only one struggling, and while I do not believe we have the right to call the humans back to our world while their own struggles, once digimon begin appearing there, they will have need of the spirits to fight, though I fear that it is too much for even them to handle.'

'They defeated Lucemon,' Seraphimon comforted. 'Despite the odds.'

'This is not about odds,' the female Celestial digimon sighed. 'Not even they can fight the past...and I pray they do not attempt to.'

'They may if they are not aware,' the male humanoid pointed out.

'Hence why they must be warned, and prepared. And as Kouichi is the only one we can reach thanks to this storm, it must be through him that the message is passed.'

Cherubimon too sighed, though it was more melancholic. 'I only wish things did not have to be this way...'


	6. As Consciousness Flows

**Author's notes**

This chapter sort of flows into the next one, so not everything may make sense for now. You'll have to wait for the rest of the explanation.

The storms by the way correspond to temporary rifts between the real and digital world at the present time. So it is theoretically possible to travel from one place to another using them.

Sorry for the long absence on this story. I actually forgot about this story, before stumbling onto it again when I was bored out of my mind. Hopefully that won't happen again.

On the bright side, I've made some leedway on my plan. This first arc is 12 chapters long. Still working on the second arc.

And on a biology note, spiders have a keen sense of chemical pherenomes by waving their forepaws. That's how they detect prey. The digital world is biologically dissimilar to the real one, and the warriors were part digimon for quite a while, so they still vaguely carry the scent of the digital world (it is possible, you know). Being a large digital spider, Dokugumon can detect that.

Up next: Wings of Darkness.

**Arc 1: Frontier Arc**

**World 3: Frontier Human/Digital World**

**Date: Monday, December 03, 2012**

Enjoy everyone.

* * *

**Chapter 5 – As Consciousness Flows**

Kouji groaned lightly at the morning rays waking him, before rolling carefully out of bed. Beside him, Kouichi was still fast asleep, not even flinching in cold as the covers were kicked back, then pulled over him again-

-dislodging something as he did so.

Kouji blinked, before looking at the device that had fallen to the floor, then blinked again. His brother's D-scanner, the only one still in their world, was flashing almost urgently, the screen switching between static and clarity as the symbol of darkness appeared on the screen...before the device suddenly vanished altogether from his hand.

He almost panicked, before remembering that his own device, along with the other four, had vanished in a similar manner soon after Kouichi's accident.

So he breathed deeply to calm his palpitating heart down, before storing that information along with the rest.

* * *

Kouichi winced lightly, realising he was lying on something rather uncomfortable (as far as beds went of course), before opening his eyes slowly, rapidly blinking when all that came into sight was swirls of black and pink.

Only, the swirls remained.

'The Venus Rose?' he wondered aloud, sitting up slowly before crashing into something. 'Oww.'

'Sorry about that,' Lowemon's voice laughed as the dark warrior himself straightened his charge. 'Didn't think you'd sit up.

'Lowemon?'

'Of course.' The lion grinned at the human.

'How'd I get here?'

'Erm, well...that's a bit of an odd story.'

Kouichi simply stared at him, awaiting an answer.

'Well...the digital and real worlds are in trouble again.'

The boy sighed. 'Of course they are. You know, Takuya is going to kill you all. Especially Agunimon.'

'Actually, we had nothing to do with it,' the warrior explained. 'It's chaos.'

'Chaos?'

'Chaos,' he affirmed. 'As the worlds and their inhabitants evolve, some elements of life are lost while others are created. The basics however always survive, and they can be classified into light and darkness, order and chaos.'

'Is that four different categories, or two merging sets?' Kouichi wondered.

'Two merging sets,' Lowemon clarified.

'But Cherubimon said chaos is the world's natural state. Or is this a different sort of chaos?'

'A different sort,' the digimon affirmed. 'This isn't natural chaos. It's chaos that has generated through the evolution of life and the things that are lost in the process. Heard of the latin phrase, 'ex nihilo nihil fit'?

'Yes,' the human replied slowly. 'Everything must come from something else and nothing can simply cease to exist. So this chaos is a result of evolution?'

'Not just evolution, but simply living. It's simply gotten to a point where chaos is becoming rather...chaotic. Normally, it would simply exist parallel to the normal occurrences of the world, simply being the force that pushes them further, but lately, that seems to have changed. Chaos is starting to take over completely.'

The boy frowned. 'Is something causing this sudden change? It can't just be spontaneous, can it?'

'No it can't,' the other agreed. 'It is possible however that the gate is causing this.'

'The gate between the human and digital world? How?'

'Well...not the gate specifically. When Lucemon tore open a wormhole between the worlds, we send the other five children back to their world and then allowed it to close...or so we thought. The truth is, which no-one had realised at the time, that it's not simply a matter of letting a door close and more a matter of stitching up a hole. But something in your world is stopping us from doing just that. So we tried to reach you all, and now we finally succeeded.'

He looked at himself, before looking up as his alter ego. 'Speaking of, how'd I get here anyway? Wasn't I in bed?'

Lowemon looked rather guilty at that, unjustly so since it wasn't really his fault. But luckily, the door opened and the three Celestial Digimon entered.

'We'll take over from here,' Ophanimon said gently, and Lowemon sighed in relief.

Kouichi however was starting to get a little suspicious, staring between the four before resorting to a glare. 'Is there something you haven't mentioned?'

'Actually...' Seraphimon, despite his majestic appearance, looked rather awkward under the glare of the sixteen year old boy. 'There's quite a bit.'

'Spill then,' he ordered, sounding rather like his brother.

'There is one important thing,' Cherubimon interrupted, feeling as though he needed to be the one to say this. 'Your body is still in the real world, and I presume, still in bed. It is only your consciousness here.'

Kouichi hadn't gotten much colour back after his sudden and unexpected relapse, but whatever he had, he lost at that point. 'What?' he breathed. 'I'm-I'm-'

'No,' the white rabbit frantically waved his paws, causing the only female in the room to laugh heartedly at the amusing show. 'It isn't permanent. Or at least, it shouldn't be.'

'_Shouldn't_?'

'Nothing can ever be done without risk,' Ophanimon gently explained. 'But chaos is complicating things.'

* * *

Despite the elder twin's absence, things were proceeding normally at school...until chaos struck at lunch time. It started when a group of friends decided to eat up on the roof, only to find a large spider clicking its pincers.

They screamed of course, attracting a teacher, who himself screamed and attracted a crowd as the spider scurried off the building.

The five conscious warriors happened to spot the commotion from the patch of grass where they had been eating lunch themselves, and had jumped up ready to evolve after spotting a digimon, only to realise they were lacking spirits and a D-scanner.

'Ow man,' Takuya cried. 'What are we going to do?'

The Dokugumon levitated the ground with ease, bungee-jumping with the silk it released, scurrying over before fixing her beaded eyes on the five humans.

'Warriors,' she hissed, before lunging at them.

'Run,' the other four cried, before turning tail and doing exactly that.

For some reason, the digimon was more interested in them than the others, maybe because they carried the scent of the Digital World even years after their journey...but in any case, they were lucky the monster kept up the chase, seeing as they had no way of stopping her if she decided to eat lunch instead.

It was also lucky that, by the time they rounded a corner to reach a dead end, a sudden storm cut her path.

A five second storm, all in all, because the clouds suddenly vanished again, and the sudden rain ceased to show nothing.

Dokugumon, wherever she had come from, was gone again.

'All right,' Izumi cried, collapsing on the spot. 'What the heck was that all about? What's a digimon even doing in our world?'

The three boys sat down around her, only then noticing the absence of their last member. 'Where's Takuya?' Kouji asked, glancing around, before groaning. 'Don't tell me we lost him?'

'Looks like we have bud,' Junpei groaned. 'Unless that monster had him for lunch.'

'Don't even joke!' Tomoki cried.

'Right. Sorry.'

* * *

Takuya had, in fact, simply gotten left behind. They had crossed a few busy streets on the way, and being at the back of the line, he figured that getting eaten by a spider was less painful then run over by a car and _then_ eaten by a spider, so he was forced to stumble to a stop. Luckily for him, the combined scent of the other four was enough to draw the Dokugumon right over him.

Unluckily, he had lost the others.

'Oh boy,' he groaned, looking around, before deciding to head to the nearest warrior's house. 'They'll either be worried out of their minds or ready to kill me right now. Or they're still running from that digimon.' And he sincerely hoped it was the last one, as he didn't want to think of the alternative.

He broke into a sprint, and was at Kouji's house in minutes, spotting a small rainstorm some distance away, before getting caught in a second storm...though this one was more like a typhoon.

Covering his face as dirt flew, he coughed a bit, before slipping his goggles over his eyes and looking through the wind.

And spotting the Dokugumon over the balcony.

'Oh crap,' he muttered. As far as he knew, Satomi and Kouichi were both inside...and Kouichi was in no condition to fight a giant spider. Heck, he was in no condition to fight anything.

But yelling at the other occupant wasn't going to help. All it would do would be to cause more trouble than it's worth.

He didn't really have time to yell anyway, as the miniature typhoon he found himself in was sucking him (that's what it felt like anyway).

Because once the wind shallowed down, he was gone.

The spider was, unfortunately, still on the balcony, eyes on the sleeping boy inside.

* * *

Satomi was downstairs as she heard the kitchen windows rattle at the sudden gust of wind that blasted them. Blinking in surprise, she spotted a small typhoon on the lawn, really one of the sort one would see in cartoons or those movies like 'Twister' but certainly not in real life, and a human figure inside, though too much dust was flying around to be able to see who.

Whoever it was wore glasses or goggles of some sort, and appeared to be staring at the second floor...if she was judging the angle correctly. She should be; after all, she was a doctor, and they had to have at least the barest expertise in most fields of medicine, including optometry, in order to be able to give accurate diagnosis.

So, slightly concerned at the abnormality but not as much as she would have been thanks to the warning the previous night, she went upstairs.

Only to find a giant spider outside trying to break through her sons' bedroom window.

To her credit, she didn't scream, though it was rather tempting too.

What she did do however was grab her stepson, blankets and all, and slam the door shut (and locked), before the spider managed to remove the pane of glass.

Then, back against the door, she took a deep breath to calm her thudding heart, before slipping into the master bedroom and risking a peek out the window.

The typhoon had shallowed considerably, and whoever had been behind (or in) it had disappeared.

The scurrying on the wooden floor told her that the intruder was however still in the house.

She held her breath again, before adjusting her grip.

She was a strong woman; she had to be, for her profession. But fighting large spiderlike monsters was certainly not one of her strengths. And all she had were small phials of anaesthetic and painkillers.

They would be about as effective as a stunning spell on a dragon in the Harry Potter universe.

Not that magic was real, but one could believe anything after the trouble she found her sons in.

Both of them.

* * *

Takuya came to rather slowly, hazily staring at the vaguely familiar forest before sitting up in shock.

'What?' he gasped. 'No way! This can't be the Digital World!'

It was, the Dark Continent to be precise, but most of the trees were knocked down by the torrents of wind rushing through...torrents that looked vaguely like the miniature typhoon he had found himself stuck in when he had still been in the real world.

He blinked, standing up and looking around more closely, noting fleeing digimon and flying digi-eggs...and the Venus Rose in the distance: Cherubimon's castle. On the other side would be the Dark Gate...eventually, though of course he did not fancy that route because of all the wind.

Surprisingly though, the wind was soundless. Even Izumi's attacks (when she had her spirits) made some degree of noise. But now, all he could hear was the sound of someone breathing and the clicking of feet on wood-

_Feet on wood?_

He was in a forest. There was soil, not wood to stand on. All the digimon had fled. So_ what_ was causing that noise?

He looked harder at the wind, and made out the double storey house, and a figure inside with back to open window, while the scraping sounds came closer...

Mustering up all the air in his lungs, he shouted to the woman holding her child. Shouted her to jump into the dying winds as they started picking up speed again...because there was no way she could outrun that ravenous spider with an unconsciousness sixteen year old on her back.

But here...he could hear shouting, a familiar voice, in the distance. Help was on the way

And by some miracle, Minamoto Satomi had heard and obeyed the call.

On the down side though, the spider too had leapt.

Luckily, a fist of fire staved her path.

'Are you both okay?' Takuya frantically asked, looking at the woman torn between several levels of shock to his still sleeping friend. 'He slept through all that?'

Satomi frowned, looking at her stepson with a critical eye, before shaking her head. 'The medication I gave him yesterday is strong, and he is quite a heavy sleeper, but he should have at least reacted to-'

She stopped, realising she had no idea what had happened.

'That was a Dokugumon,' Takuya helpfully explained, watching his alter-ego battle the spider and send her flying. 'The red one fighting him is Agunimon, the human warrior of flame. And we're in the dark continent of the digital world. Did the twins ever tell you about the Digital World?'

'Yes,' the woman sighed, suddenly exhausted. 'Yesterday.'

'Oh, well-'

He was cut off by a rather peeved Agunimon. 'What in Lucemon's name are you doing here Takuya?' he growled. 'It's supposed to be impossible, not to mention entirely dangerous.'

'Hey!' He held up his hands in defence. 'Blame that spider. Somehow got stuck in a mini-cyclone.'

The warrior of flame sighed, before looking at the boy on the woman's back. 'Well, that simplifies things a bit. Kouichi should be pleased.'

'Huh?' His eyes then narrowed. 'I believe I told you not to mess things up, and what do you mean Kouichi should be pleased. He's right-' He paused, as a possibility hit him. 'He's not a wandering spirit again, is he?'

The sudden guilt on his warrior's face gave the game away.

'All right, I'll bite. Why the hell was that necessary?'

'What makes you think it was intentional?'

'Because, otherwise _you would have called us at the very least._'

Agunimon laughed awkwardly. 'Yeah, well...I'll leave the explanation up to the Celestials. Climb on.'

Satomi spoke up for the first time. 'Where are we going?'

'The Venus Rose,' the hybrid digimon pointed to the castle under the star as the wind finally died completely. 'I'll carry you all.'

'Vritramon?' Takuya asked, a little amused.

Agunimon smirked. 'Of course.'

* * *

Minamoto Kousei was hoping for a warm cup of tea and a delicious late lunch once he returned home early that afternoon. What he did not expect to see was the tree that overhung the balcony missing a limb, the lawn in shambles, a broken window and a panicking son and three friends.

'Kouji?' he asked, surprised. 'What's going on?'

'We don't know,' he replied frantically (which was panic-worthy in itself, Kouji hardly _ever_ panicked.) 'I can't find 'kaa-san or Kouichi...or Takuya.'

'We were looking for Takuya since lunch,' the only female breathlessly continued. 'And we just came across the house like this, about half an hour ago. There's silk upstairs too.'

Kouji suddenly rounded on her. 'Silk?'

'Uh...yeah.'

He hissed between his teeth.

'What's wrong?' Tomoki blinked, before the realisation hit him as well. 'Oh no, you don't think that-'

'Would someone tell me what's going on?' Kousei growled impatiently, a little fed up with the blabbing.

Junpei shrugged helplessly. 'Wish we could, but we're about as lost as everyone else. All we know is that it has something to do with the Digital World...tell me the twins told you about that.'

'Kouji did,' the adult groaned, rubbing his forehead. 'Last night.'

Said boy looked close to tearing out his hair. 'If only his D-scanner hadn't vanished, we'd at least know _something._'

'We do know something,' Izumi pointed out reasonably.

'Yeah,' the ex-warrior of thunder rolled his eyes. 'The world's going wacko.'

'Hold that thought,' Tomoki said, staring at his cell phone which beeped to display an incoming message. 'I've got an SMS from Takuya.'

Everyone looked up eagerly. 'What's it say?'

'"In digiworld. Fine. With Kouichi and Minamoto-san. Will be back soon."'

He blinked. 'How'd they wind up in the Digital World?'

'Maybe the same way that Dokugumon wound up in ours,' Junpei commented. 'At least we know they're safe.'

'Yeah.' Kouji looked relieved. 'But why didn't he text me?'

'Probably because he figured you'd be too busy panicking to notice an incoming message,' the youngest reasonably pointed out.


	7. Wings of Darkness

**Author's Notes**

Sorry about the long wait.

If you've see the schedule (sort of) on my profile, you'd know this isn't one my regularly updated stories for now. If not…it's not getting regularly updated until I finish some other stories and finish the plan for this one. Will still get spontaneous updates though…when the fancy strikes.

**Arc 1: Frontier Arc**

**World 3: Frontier Human/Digital World**

**Date: Monday, December 03, 2012**

Up next, Chapter 7 – The Price of Order.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Wings of Darkness**

'What in the-? Explain now!'

The startled and somewhat shocked cry that greeted the trio of humans and digimon was one that they hadn't expected, despite knowing the soul and consciousness had been split. Perhaps because Kouichi seriously hadn't sounded like Kouichi when he had said that, pointing at his own body and glaring at the three angels.

'Why the-'

'Kouichi,' Satomi interrupted sternly.

'Why is my stepmother here?' he amended, a little more placate.

Lowemon stared at Agunimon from under his mask, who shrugged. 'A twister and a ravenous spider,' the flame warrior explained in a nutshell.

'This is bad,' Seraphimon said. 'If humans and digimon continue to cross over to the other side, who knows what sort of-' He stopped immediately, much to the confusion of most of the newcomers, Agunimon being the only one with any inkling to what was going on. 'Perhaps we should…um…' He broke off a little awkwardly, looking at the raven who had a tendency to act less like himself and more like his brother's more volatile manner when he was panicked, in pain, or heavily burdened with something that gone past the stage of denial. Or all three. And they knew how dangerous he could be; after all, Duskmon didn't spring out of the dirt, and he wasn't even at full strength. If his, Kouichi's that is, mind had been warped instead of brainwashed…

He shivered at the thought, getting odd looks from anyone who wasn't a Celestial Digimon.

'Um…what?' Takuya asked finally, the same instant Kouichi stared at his body who had been set carefully down on the floor and spoke.

'Put my soul back in my body?'

'Naturally,' Ofanimon said. 'You already know what's going on, so we'll converse while you rest. Time is running out.'

Kouichi never got the chance to ask, but that didn't stop Takuya.

It was Cherubimon, deep voice rumbling, who answered.

'The Digital World will soon crumble completely. At the moment, all its remaining resources are going towards holding up the few places that still remain: our castles, and the minimal land surrounding it. The forest has disappeared by now as well, dissolved by Chaos.'

'Chaos?' the brunette asked.

Satomi remained silent, taking a seat next to her sleeping step-son, feeling utterly useless.

* * *

The walls shook suddenly, causing the nine digimon (they had been joined by Fairymon, Blitzmon, Chakkmon and Wolfmon during the explanation).

'This in insane,' Takuya cried. 'How do we stop this?'

'If we could tackle the source,' Ofanimon began, 'we may be able to reverse the effects, but travelling through time is a tricky business and an unpredictable one. There is a catalyst, but even that activates at almost random moments, and it is not a reliable tool to trust one's fate to.'

'We have no choice,' Seraphimon reminded her. 'There is no way to stop the Chaos. We've tried everything.'

'Perhaps,' Cherubimon said. 'These humans can find a way again. They held our fate before.'

'But this time, they have their own world to save. The human world is also in peril. Times are lapsing, worlds are crossing over…if a way to stop this isn't found, they will fall as well. They haven't the time nor the resources to help both us and them.'

'We have to try,' the warrior of fire protested, before being halted by his alter-ego.

'If the human world is saved, the digital world will automatically rebuild itself,' Agunimon explained, looking at Lowemon and receiving a conformational nod. 'The reverse however is not true. The Digital World is, at its foundations, a mirror of the human world. We were born from you humans, and as long as you all live on, we will be reborn again and again.'

'It won't be the same,' Kouichi spoke up, alerting to the fact that he was awake, and looking far better than the last time he had been awake.

'No.' Lowemon smiled a little wryly. 'It won't. But we have no other choice.'

'We're not giving up,' Wolfmon interrupted the goggle-headed leader before he spoke again. 'We'll still fight here; we're just giving you what we can so you can fight in your own world. You guys evolving with the legendary spirits won't affect us in any way; we've become separate entities after the battle with Lucemon, and you and your friends need the spirits of the legendary warriors.'

'All three of you need to leave now,' Seraphimon declared, staring at the still shaking walls. 'We'll try to stop the chaos; so far, our attacks and barriers have done nothing to stop this black mass from devouring our land, but we will fight it still. Perhaps all we needed was hope.'

Neither of the two heirs of the ancient warriors wanted to go, but they realised they would only be as helpful as their purely digital counterparts here, and far more so in a world they had left behind on the brink of chaos.

'Worm is just outside,' Cherubimon said, somewhat gently as though sensing their hesitation. 'Hopefully, he can get you all back to your world.'

No-one moved, until the back wall caved in, spurring the beast angel to push the three humans out with his massive paws and launch a thunder barrage to block their path back.

Takuya, swallowing the reluctance, pushed Satomi ahead of him and made to run, only to notice Kouichi had made no move to follow.

'Kouichi!' he called. 'Come on!'

He didn't move. 'I can't just leave them,' he exclaimed. 'Not-'

He was cut off by the a sudden ceasefire, then two digieggs flying, one straight into his chest and making him stagger into Takuya, while another flew past the brunette's head before ne noticed.

'Wha-?'

'Cherubimon,' the child of darkness muttered, staring at the egg in his hands. 'The other was Ofanimon.'

Takuya put a hand on the other boy's shoulder. 'We need to get back. There are Digimon rampaging in the real world, and who knows what else. This isn't our fight this time.'

This time, the other followed, reluctantly, until they both noticed the outer wall dissolve like it had been dipped in sulphuric acid, and they bolted in panic.

'Go!' the child of flame shouted at Worm, who immediately hurried along with Satomi on board. He pushed his legs to the limits, diving and catching the rail and hoisting himself up after a minute or so, holding his hand out for the other.

Kouichi wasn't quite as fast as the other, been more of a bookworm than an athlete, and he had the egg and a head injury to contend with. Worm was going slow enough for him to narrow the lead, but the problem was, the black mass that could only be chaos' last ravish of the Digital World was faster.

'Hurry!' Takuya screamed. 'Worm, double back!'

'No, don't!' Kouichi yelled back. 'We'll never make it if you do.'

Luckily, Worm had heard neither demand.

Takuya, rather recklessly, made to jump off, as if that would bring him in reach of the other, but Kouichi, noticing both that and the chaos literally at his heels snapped his arm back and tossed the egg like a football before they went through his shoes and touched his feet.

Instantly, he stumbled, making it all too easy for the mass to cover his legs and body up to his waist before his brain, or anything for that matter, could react. Another moment, and the black tides swept over him completely, heading for the train who, noticing the danger, sped away.

'Kouichi!'

Bright light shot from the darkness, along with the digi-egg he held in his hands. If Kouji was here, he would have laughed at the cliché, if it hadn't just saved his brother's life.

* * *

Inside the darkness, the child thereof suddenly found himself cocooned in a warm glow, body numb and tingling and floating on a sea of…something. To be honest, he had no idea what.

'_Kouichi…_'

He blinked.

_'Child of darkness…you are still needed.'_

'Who-?'

He had the sensation of someone smiling, like a proud grandfather.

_ 'I am the one who chose you. And I cannot allow my heir to crumble with this world.'_

'AncientSphinxmon?'

At that moment, he saw the majestic sphinx, wings lined with gold and embodied with a black ebony.

_ 'You, all you Chosen, are needed if there is any hope left. That is the only thing that can defeat Chaos. Hope.'_

'Hope…' He closed his eyes, ignoring the mass darkness around him, focusing on the inner, warmer core.

_ 'If you cannot walk, then fly…'_

He felt his spirits, human and beast, combining within his body. Digi-code enveloped him, and without a doubt, he knew what was happening. He had seen this light before, flying into Kouji's D-scanner, surrounding him and giving rise to the fusion evolution.

'Execute, Fusion Evolution!' Reichmon!'

* * *

The winged digimon burst from the blanket of black, dressed in brown and black and gold, and shining bright as the light extended and enveloped the Trailmon as well, just as the sea reached the wheels.

Takuya held his breath, then released it when nothing happened. _Was this finally a barrier that could stop the chaos?_

No…he could see the light dimming. They had to hurry.

Worm never ceased moving, and the winged digmon flew rapidly after them. He could detect Lowemon's mask and helmet hidden behind modification, and KaiserLeomon's paws, so he could only assume this was Kouichi's fusion form.

And not a moment too soon.

_I just hope it holds. And we still have a world to go back too._

It did. And they did, tumbling onto a semi-occupied road, literally, as the two humans not securely inside Worm were thrown off at the sudden brakes.

Takuya lay dazed on the sidewalk, crawling to his feet with egg still clutched to his chest, before looking around for the others. Satomi stood by Worm, who looked rather out of place but otherwise all right for the time being, sort of blending into the circus moving away. He must have had the idea, or perhaps he spotted the carriage that looked rather like Buffalo, because realising they, the warriors that is, wouldn't be able to hide him here, and that the wormhole they had come through had vanished in an instant, he tagged along at the end of the procession.

Kouichi…he was on his other side. Which meant he was on the road.

'Hey,' he called, a little worriedly. 'You're on the road. Get off.'

Kouichi shifted slightly, looking as though he would get up. He didn't though, and the two onlookers simply couldn't understand why, until an approaching car knocked the thought out of their minds.

His body was still in shock, so all he could do was stand shakily and yell at the other in the time the driver took to notice the obstacle. Panic set into Kouichi's features as he pulled himself onto his arms…but still, he didn't get up.

'God, what the hell are you doing?'

The car skidded to a stop, just in time.

The others reached him by then, Satomi taking her step son into her arms. 'What happened?' she asked urgently. 'Why didn't you move? Did you panic?'

Kouichi shook in her hold, voice shaking from shock, fear and overstrained physical weakness. 'I-I couldn't. My legs, t-they just w-wouldn't m-move.'


End file.
